Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Red, White and Blue Tie-Dye for The 4th of July

That's my cutie patootie nephew above, eating ice cream in his red, white and blue tie-dye. Is that photo just screaming the 4th of July or what?! Yes, tie-dye is a necessity for the 4th and really easy to do!

You need a t-shirt, (did I just state the obvious? Sorry!) plastic gloves, rubber bands, plastic bag and red and blue dye. If your dye does not come with those great squirt bottles then you will need those, too.

With a damp t-shirt you will pull up from the center and start to twist. This is for traditional style tie-dye. You can also just twist in random spots to create small star-bursts all over the shirt.

Start to rubber band the shirt as you go.The more bands the more design you get. I usually use about 8-10 per shirt.

OK, this is a must do outside part of the project. Once your shirts are all twisted and secured with rubber bands you can start dyeing. Squirt the dye right onto the shirt using enough to saturate the shirt. Try to keep the colors separate. They will blend quite a bit if they touch too much. Once they are covered well with dye place the shirt into a plastic bag over night. The next day cut the bands off and wash (alone) in the washing machine.

And now you got yourself some pretty cute 4th of July gear! For more details I shared this tutorial over at Kiwi Crate.